Maputo — Xipamanine market, the largest municipal market in Maputo city, closed its doors on Monday for a three day period of reorganisation and disinfection.
This is the first step in the gradual and temporary closure of the city's 63 markets and five fairs, intended to make them safer for consumers and for stallholders in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Explaining the closure to reporters on Friday, the municipal councillor for health and social welfare, Alice de Abreu, said there have already been cases of Covid-19 detected in the city's markets (although she did not say which ones).
This might work for the formal sector - but many markets, including Xipamanine, also have a sprawling informal sector spilling onto the streets and pavement outside the formal market.
Taking the formal and informal sectors together, 11,000 people are said to work in the Xipamanine market - 5,000 in the formal market, and 6,000 in the informal market.
